Although it may be a reality check I don’t think this makes anyone feel good in the end. Not the child who receives it nor the parent who reads it. If this woman is going to discriminate and feels so strongly about Halloween contributing to childhood obesity, why hand out candy at all?

A: I was never a fan of meat for reasons I was unable to articulate as a child but ate it anyway because my parents made me feel like I had to. Then when I was eleven a conversation with a Hindu girl changed my life. Vegetarianism was apart of her religion – her belief system. I’m not Hindu but abstaining from meat is what I resonate with similar to a religion. From that day forward red meat was off the table. A few months later chicken was nixed after finding a tendon in my chicken nugget. That Thanksgiving I gave up turkey after spotting a vein. I’m a vegetarian because I cannot get passed eating a dead animal. I don’t consider it edible and I do not condone factory farming.

Do you or will you cook it?

It makes me uncomfortable to see or handle meat – both raw and cooked. I’ve prepared my boyfriend chicken twice on special occasions but it made me uneasy and put me in a bad mood (childishly stated, admittedly). I am extremely conflicted on what meat and how much I will be willing to feed my future family one day. Despite family demands, if my stomach and heart have a very difficult time cooking meat – whatdoyoudo?

I have the “origin of vegetarianism” conversation often and pleasant, inquisitive conversation almost always follows. The one disturbing reaction came from a holistic chiropractor during a Nutrition Response Testing session last fall. He told me I would live 5 – 15 years less than people who ate meat and tried to sell me a supplement made from a cow’s thyroid to help with fatigue (Read: Meat pills!). To each their own, doc. I expected a little more open-mindedness from a “holistic” chiropractor who practiced Nutrition Response Testing.

Moving forward, I support Meatless Mondays and when prompted, I do and will encourage anyone who has the means to stop supporting / stop buying meat from factory farms and kindly let them know that “organic’ or “humanely raised” meat is a better option. For those who aren’t clear on the practices of Factory Farming:

Far from the idyllic, spacious pastures that are shown in advertisements for meat, milk, and eggs, factory farms typically consist of large numbers of animals being raised in extreme confinement. Animals on factory farms are regarded as commodities to be exploited for profit. They undergo painful mutilations and are bred to grow unnaturally fast and large for the purpose of maximizing meat, egg, and milk production for the food industry. Their bodies cannot support this growth, which results in debilitating and painful conditions and deformities.

The factory farming industry puts incredible strain on our natural resources. The extreme amount of waste created by raising so many animals in one place pollutes our land, air, and water. Residents of rural communities surrounding factory farms report high incidents of illness, and their property values are often lowered by their proximity to industrial farms. To counteract the health challenges presented by overcrowded, stressful, unsanitary living conditions, antibiotics are used extensively on factory farms, which can create drug-resistant bacteria and put human health at risk. SOURCE

I had the pleasure of being invited out to the Hamptons this past weekend. A few years ago (when I was just a pup) I saw the Hamptons as another place to party and have fun outside of Manhattan on summer weekends. Now I appreciate and very much look forward to the escape, the change of pace, the open land, the beach-town feel, the truly local produce and not having to go underground to travel from one part of town to the next. We stayed at a friend’s parents house which is equipped with the most incredible garden. This is no backyard tomato-and-basil growing garden – this is a serious operation! They are growing some things that I naively didn’t think home gardens could grow! Kale, blueberries, raspberries, zucchini blossoms, lettuce – our hostess picked from and then we ate from the garden at every meal. This experience, the feeling of eating something that’s real and being connected to what’s going into my body is something I aspire to have and to share with others at my kitchen table one day. I want a garden, I want time to play with my garden, I want time to cook from my garden.

I recently registered this little site with Bloglovin‘. If you’re a blog lover-reader-writer it’s a convenient free tool that organizes all updated posts in one spot eliminating the need to check each bloggers’ individual site throughout the day. Bloglovin’ also has a free app which is pretty easy to use and navigate.

Two screen-shots from my phone are displayed below so you can get an idea of the layout.